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Girl child

LILING, China - Not long ago, Wen Xiujuan was swept up in a romance. Against the wishes of her parents, she moved to the small village of Liling, 300 km from her hometown, to marry a young man named Yang Liu. They lived happily with Mr. Liu's parents, who hoped the couple would have a son.

More than 3,500 children, most of whom were aged 13 to 17, were recruited by non-state armed groups between 2013 and 2017 and have been used in the ongoing armed conflict in northeast Nigeria - UNICEF said today ahead of the fifth anniversary of the Chibok abduction.

From killing and maiming, to recruitment, sexual abuse and abduction, "violence against children in armed conflict can take many forms", said Secretary-General António Guterres, in a special message delivered at the launch of a new UN advocacy campaign on Tuesday - Act to Protect Children Affected by Conflict.

DARA'A, Syrian Arab Republic - With the crisis in Syria soon to enter its ninth year, the people of Dara'a Governorate face especially harrowing conditions, with hostilities killing civilians as recently as July. Dara'a residents continue to require life-saving aid, including the full spectrum of health assistance.

Damboya, ETHIOPIA/New York, UNITED NATIONS - Tadelech Ermias remembers the ridicule she faced when she refused to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM), which was considered a requirement for brides in her community. "It was inconceivable then for a girl to get married without being cut," she said.

A teacher holds up a drawing of an adolescent girl who has just been caught unawares by her first menstruation cycle, while at school. She's addressing neat rows of young women sitting in class, in the town of Bol, in Chad.

Since its opening in 2015, over 1,800 young women and men in Zaatari refugee camp have benefitted from trainings on reproductive health and gender-based violence at the Questscope-UNFPA Youth Centre. This is the story of 16-year-old Yanal, who became an advocate against child marriage after learning about its harms at the UNFPA-supported youth centre in Zaatari.

During the mapathon hosted by UNFPA on September 28, over 6,000 volunteers in over 60 countries mapped more than 49,000 buildings and nearly 7,000 kilometres of roads – generating data that will help a range of FGM-related services and outreach programmes reach the girls, families and communities that need them most.

More than a year into the crisis in Cox's Bazar, the number of Rohingya refugees has reached nearly one million, with young girls in Bangladesh refugee camps sold into forced labour accounting for the largest group of trafficking victims, reported the UN Migration Agency (IOM) on Tuesday.